If I had to guess? It's like selling dope. You can knock off one smuggler; but you rarely affect the "network." Because? Well, the network is global. And, it is loose.

Not in this case. Any idiot can sell dope. But Lulzsec relies on an army of idiot goons masterminded by a few top men with some very specific and not very common skills. This is really much more like decapitating a mafia syndicate.

Are we really unaware enough to believe that just because a person looks scruffy, is unemployed and wears ear studs they're harmless? Or is it that we don't like the idea of the FBI? Or the idea that computer hackers can disable almost any organization? Or do we secretly like the idea that they can? Or wish they would?

...was allegedly led by a shadowy figure FoxNews.com has identified as Hector Xavier Monsegur...

... allegedly commanded a loosely organized, international team of perhaps thousands of hackers from his nerve center ...

... is believed to have been the main person behind the devastating December hack on Stratfor, a private company that provides geopolitical analysis to governments and others. Millions of emails were stolen and then published on Wikileaks; credit card numbers and other confidential information were also stolen."

Fox is making this dude and his co-horts out to be criminal geniuses. The reality is that they're all two-bit losers (Sabu lives in a housing project for Chrissake!) yakkin' to each other on IRC who's most notable act was the highly technical (*eyeroll*) accomplishment of "compromising" a database with hideously weak passwords.

Oh my... sic James Bond on them, please. (*another eyeroll*).

WTF is Fox doing blowing this guy and his dippy friends skirts up? Sabu's "hactivism" was exposing systems who's admins had no clue what security was. That in fact is Lulzsec's stated goal. These folks aren't geniuses or "shadowy" figures like an online e-mafia. They're a bunch of folks who know how to look up and use rootkits and make other scripted compromises to do the equivalent of showing a business owner his unlocked door in the alley that robbers can get through.

I swear, news organizations have no clue how to properly contextualize either scientific or technical news. None.

I think this is effective, because when the leader turns you in, that makes this endeavor a lot more risky for people inclined to do this. People join others for the security and camaraderie, but when simply joining something makes you vulnerable, then what's the point?

You could'a fooled me. Considering you can buy illegal documents in Queens. And, other places.

And, of course, dope is sold on almost every street corner in America.

Sure. Name change. They're now called CARTELS. And, back in the 1980's, when the USA was running short of money; it contacted the Cartels. And, "laundered" enormous sums of money.

Heck, in NYC, you can no longer gain a prosecutor's reputation by going after the mafia. Not like in the old days, when Elliot Ness worked for the FBI. (And, back then? Booze was one of the biggest money makers, because of Prohibition.)

It is said that while Prohibition lasted ... there were places in NYC (called "speakeasies") ... that never went dry.

What can be peddled today? You name, and the mafia can peddle it.

While "hacking" ... done back in the early 1980's ... was one guy ... who'd whistle into a public telephone. And, he could make calls anywhere around the world. And, not even pay a dime.

As if criminality doesn't advance. The concept that someone can "believe" in the FBI is just mind boggling. Next, they'll become famous for counting grains of sand on the beach. What beach (head) first? I'll pick COLUMBIA.

"Sabu's "hactivism" was exposing systems who's admins had no clue what security was."

-- And stealing user data that ended up being used in crimes like identity theft. Maybe some members were honest do-gooders, but once you start stealing people's data and some of your team makes money off it -- you're no longer doing a defensible act. Sabu may not be a big deal, but LulzSec were trouble makers who deserve the legal action coming their way if they get caught.

"-- And stealing user data that ended up being used in crimes like identity theft. Maybe some members were honest do-gooders, but once you start stealing people's data and some of your team makes money off it -- you're no longer doing a defensible act."

Whoa, whoa, whoa. First of all, I'm not defending Lulzsec in the slightest. I'm not saying they were whitehats by any stretch of the imagination. On the contrary, I call them every bit the criminal they deserve to be called. I'm not defending them at all; if I had a crack at it, I'd be one of the first in line helping to jail these punks.

My complaint was the hyping of Lulzsec as some sort of incredible hacking organization. They're nothing but script kiddies who've grown older but not become full fledged adults. They're small time theives, not some big time E-Crime syndicate. They're idiots who managed to steal - and make no mistake, they stole unlawfully - information and use it selfishly.

They're totally criminals.

I'm sorry, but I'm a little confused at how you thought I was defending either Sabu or Lulzsec in general. My job is in IT, I've even got two certifications in Windows and Network security (not like my job's enabled me to actually excercise those skills, but I've acquired them...), and these are exactly the sorts of idiots I'd have to combat if I were in our IT security department. I'm not defending them. I'm just complaining that Fox seems to be making them out to be 1000X times the criminals they really are. A small time street thug's no mafia don by any stretch of the imagination. Neither is Lulzsec.

Heh. Boasting, bragging and strutting on internet communiques is one thing. Being cuffed up in interrogation cell somewhere while some pubic defender Atty you don't know or trust reads you the particulars of a bill of indictment and the reality of a decade or so in prison is another. Punk ass bitch.